Sales News, May 2022

We’ve scoured the internet, so you don’t have to. After all, you’re probably busy with conference preparation, at least if you read last week’s blog! Here’s the latest sales news from around the web.

ATTRACTING TALENT (AND CUSTOMERS)

Competition is fierce in today’s hiring market. Take a look at this Forbes article outlining some of the common mistakes organizations make when trying to attract new talent. For example, are you failing to clearly express your values and policies? Potential hires want to know about your ethical practices, remote work policies, and what kind of career progression they can expect (especially now that they might not work in the same space as company leadership). They don’t want a sales pitch—they want to know what they can really expect. 

Potential employees aren’t the only ones interested in your ethical standards. Consumers are interested, too. Even the definitions of certain ethical standards are changing because of what customers now expect. For example, when you talk about your company’s commitment to sustainability, are you including environmental and social and economic factors? You should be, because 46% of your customers are.

Brand names and loyalty are becoming less important and sustainability more important across all generations, but especially Gen Z. Green profitability expert Shel Horowitz encourages companies to stop thinking about it as sustainability at all, but instead as “regenerativity.” In other words, how is your company making the world better?

KEEPING TALENT

Company leaders are saying that the Great Resignation has run its course, but according to this Harvard Business Review article, they’re looking at hiring stats, not retention stats. Worse, many of them are unclear on what makes employees want to stay with an organization.

Want some tips on how to retain the talent you fought so hard for? First, make sure you have a strong onboarding program. HubSpot shares why this is particularly important if you’re leading a hybrid team. They report that employees onboarded in the last two years are at a higher risk of leaving because they don’t feel connected to their team.

Want another tip for retaining employees, especially those from underrepresented groups? Stop allowing high-performing @$$holes to get away with bullying them. File that tip under things we shouldn’t have to tell you but apparently do because toxic culture costs companies $50B a year and was the largest predictor of attrition during the first six months of the Great Resignation.

Something else to consider is how you treat employees who leave in the first place. It’s not always possible for individuals to get the experience they need within one organization. Normalize leaving the organization so that you can welcome past employees back. Plus, a strong alumni program can help you find good talent for your open positions.

It’s not only toxic bullies that can lose your company money. There is another, far sadder culprit—lonely salespeople. Most sales professionals thrive on human interaction, and remote work has been tough on them. Recent research reveals that lonely salespeople exhibit three problematic (and costly) behaviors. They are socially awkward, have lost focus on customer needs, and overspend on their customers on things like gifts and meals. Your salespeople might need some Zoom playdates.

TELLING STORIES

We’ve written before about the power of storytelling, and this month it seems to be a theme. As Harvard instructor Camine Gallo says, the tools for presenting have changed, but our brains have not. Cavemen don’t like boring PowerPoint slides—they much prefer stories around the fire.

You can also listen to Cheryl Turja from Adobe on the Revenue Innovators podcast talk about how her team trains on storytelling. “Not every seller is comfortable or even really grasps the idea of selling without ever talking about the product,” she says. She encourages her team to, instead of talking about a product, talk about what it can do.

B2B SALES OCCUR BETWEEN (GASP) HUMANS!

Sometimes we see stats or suggestions and think, “maybe that’s true for B2C sales, but surely not for B2B.” There’s lots of news this month that proves the two aren’t as different as you might think. Forbes shares that the power of storytelling is just as powerful in B2B sales. The old approach assumed B2B decision making was more rational, but it was recently discovered that B2B decision makers are indeed human (shocker) and are as irrational as the rest of us. In fact, B2B customers are significantly more emotionally attached to their vendors and service providers than B2C consumers. They are 8x more likely to pay a premium for a product or service they love.

But Instagram influencers are a B2C thing only, right? Wrong again. B2B brands get a higher ROI from influencer marketing than B2C. They also get better results using hashtags. #whoknew?

Finally, even if you’re in a boring industry, you can still be cool! You just need at least one of the ten characteristics of brand coolness. You can look at them here. Everybody’s doing it.

Know what else the cool kids are doing? Taking Maestro’s online email course. Those who are truly cool can get 100% off. (Yes, you’re truly cool.)